September 29, 2007

No question, "Cane" is a Cuban imitation - and a ham-handed one - of "Godfather." There are all the "Godfather" themes: Family, an adopted son, a treacherous son, a declining patriarch, love of America, a senator in the pocket. There were also all the same classic scenes: The big party, the darkened room in which the patriarch conducts his meetings, the nesting of family together.

With consumer advertising not working out too well, Big Pharma has turned to product placement, reports FORTUNE's John Simons. We can anticipate plenty of new pill-popping during primetime TV. Denny Crane, in the kick-off episode for the new season of "Boston Legal," has been very preoccupied with the past and aging. Will Alan suggest a script of Zoloft for this lion in winter? Actually, Alan could probably use some kind of med to help him assume the right attitude to make partner.

Labor is pushing back - more strategically. Today, on the North American Day of Action, American and Canadian union members are aligning forces to fight for the safety of British Columbia forestry workers. In the past 20 months, about 65 of them have been killed on the job.

September 28, 2007

Tonight on "20/20" there are all the horror stories about houses which won't sell and homeowners who get ripped off by contractors. Here's a crisis and I am not involved. Before I took my vow of poverty November 6, 2003, I seemed to be caught in every downturn in property values and meet up with the home-improvement guy from hell. In August 2004 I lucked out, sold my house in West Hartford, Connecticut at a profit, paid off about 40 percent of credit-card debt and have been happily renting since.

To Winkler-trial watchers, Mary Winkler aka Preacher's Wife seemed like a Child-Woman. She obeyed like a child until the day she seemed to snap and offed her preacher husband Matthew. On "Oprah," she seemed to have acquired, perhaps through therapy, a grasp that life was her responsibility to negotiate. And, in her battle to re-gain her three daughters, she seems to be able to be making adult decisions.

September 27, 2007

Who would have thunk? If it weren't for the trusty supermarket tabloids, I would have continued thinking about Condi as Little Miss Goody Two Shoes. In the October 8th issue of GLOBE, "insiders" go beyond the rumor that Condi is the other woman in the White House. Now come to light questions about whether she is a lesbian.

With the new season of "Desperate Housewives" things really get tangled up fast. Edie, who tried to commit suicide on the final episode last season, is not only alive. She's pregnant with Carlos' baby, reports Drew MacKenzie in the October 8th issue of GLOBE. But, here's the wrench in the works: Carlos, who desperately did want a child, doesn't want one any more. He now wants to re-unite with his ex Gaby since she's so disappointed in her marriage to scheming Victor. Therefore, Carlos he gets in touch with a buddy from the slammer to have Edie "taken care of."

September 26, 2007

Just when "they" were writing off McDonald's as an old-economy fathead, the company is surging - on every level. But this comeback should have been obvious to anyone who's been at McDonald's in the past few months. Maybe Wall Street financial types don't do Mickey D. I do.